The Best Programmers are...

[Daniel Turini]

Those who know how to properly use a search engine, aka Google. You can see this by noticing how many questions are in the forums that could be solved in a simple search on Google! My latest articles: Desktop Bob - Instant CP notifications XOR tricks for RAID data protection

[Chris Losinger]

i agree, 100%. for me, CP is always a last resort for questions. odds are good that someone has already asked and answered my question on a usenet group somewhere. -c

---

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life. -- George Bernard Shaw

Smaller Animals Software

[Marc Clifton]

True. I was wondering about that myself recently when a couple questions came up (both programming and non-programming related), and it occurred to me: 1. Sometimes it's nice to feel like you're communicating with somebody as opposed to searching "dead" threads; 2. Sometimes it's faster to ask instead of to search; 3. There's different opinions and solutions to everything, which may be useful; 4. If no one asked questions, then there wouldn't be anything to search in the first place! (Sort of the chicken and the egg problem). Marc

[natalie morales]

absolutely,,,,a bit of time on google has solved just about every programming question I've had. There is someone here at my company that is trying to learn programming. He's constanly asking me (and other team members) for help with very simple stuff. Hasn't quite gotten our hints about using google and msdn.

[Dean Michaud]

As one that has asked such a question earlier today[^], I thought I'd give a short rebuttle and explain why I ask questions here, and other places, when looking for information. I usually search for applications in the following manner: 1) Hit Google, narrow it down to a few that seem to fit the bill. 2) Hit different Open Source warehouse websites, and see if there's anything there that fits the bill. 3) Since I've been sifting for roughly 30mins, and I have a handful of possible apps, I pose a question on a respected (by myself) website and see if anyone recommends any of the applications I have earmarked out on the web. If I have any matches, I download and try those first, since they both appear to fit the bill by a quick scan of the hosting website pimping the tool as well as being recommended by someone else that may have used it. I find this really cuts down on the trial and error pains you can encounter. The internet is a great warehouse for a lot of crap, and it is nice to have help sorting through it to find the gem you've been looking for. Knowing how to use the internet's various facets properly, including both search engines and knowledge of where to look, is what, to me, makes the better and more efficient web-user/programmer. Besides, what's wrong with trying to socialize a little on the Bulletin Boards... we programmers don't nearly get enough people-time in our lives, so the boards make for a good substitute! :-O : Dean 'Karnatos' Michaud

[Daniel Turini]

Your question is exactly the kind of question which is hard to answer by using Google. But, often I see questions like "how do I move a file using the Win32 API?" that could be answered by a simple use of Google or even Intelissense! I love to answer questions on the forums, but sometimes I think some people there are just lazy, specially those question "I have this school homework, could you code this for me?" My latest articles: Desktop Bob - Instant CP notifications XOR tricks for RAID data protection

[Christian Graus]

Daniel Turini wrote: "I have this school homework, could you code this for me?" Ha - when was the last time someone said that ? Or do you mean it's just obvious sometimes that this is what people want ? Christian Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002 During last 10 years, with invention of VB and similar programming environments, every ill-educated moron became able to develop software. - Alex E. - 12-Sept-2002

[Daniel Turini]

Christian Graus wrote: Or do you mean it's just obvious sometimes that this is what people want ? This is what I mean. If you dig into the forums, each two or three days a post like this appears... My latest articles: Desktop Bob - Instant CP notifications XOR tricks for RAID data protection

[Senkwe Chanda]

Depends, sometimes it's nice to ask on CP and get a few good keywords. There's times when I don't know what words to lookup and google frustrates me. Not often though. ASP.NET can never fail as working with it is like fitting bras to supermodels - it's one pleasure after the next - David Wulff